Material handling tray



1955 A. H. WESLING MATERIAL HANDLING TRAY 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 18, 1952 Feb. 22, 1955 w sLm 2,702,647

I MATERIAL HANDLING TRAY Filed April 18, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent MATERIAL HANDLING TRAY Albert H. Wesling, Chicago, 111., assignor to Albert Wesling. and Sons, Inc., Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application April 18, 1952, Serial No. 282,938

7 Claims. (Cl. 21718) The invention relates to improvements in means for material handling and may be more specifically referred to as residing in trays of a kind that may have their partitions readily removed, inserted or rearranged, so as to adapt the trays for use in an integrated system for handling special material, such as selected machine parts and so forth.

Modern industry has long been served with material handling trays of various types of construction. In many instances, trays have been provided with fixed partitions dividing the trays into compartments of fixed size. Obviously, when such a tray is fabricated for a special use, it is impossible or impracticable to use it for any other purpose. One result arising from this situation is found in the requirement for many trays fabricated for use in different departments to receive variously sized and shaped articles. The acquisition and use of such trays is very expensive, not only because of their initial high cost, but in the fact that production and material handling in a particular department may be restricted because certain of the trays there required have found their way into other departments and have not been returned.

Other prior art trays are known to have removable partitions, but these also lack the universal application of the tray of the present invention, either because the partitions are in the form of solid panels or, in instances where they assume the form'of rods, such rods, when positioned, are fixedly secured in the frame by various means. In either'instance, the prior art trays are incapable of universal adaptation and the quick rearrangement afforded by the instant construction.

The tray 'of the present invention is particularly engineered to constitute the basic structure for a system of material handling. More specifically, the material handling tray structure is built about a common frame, which is provided with suitable fixtures adapting any required number-of frames to be stacked, so that when easily adjustable partition rods are arranged in said frames in a desired pattern, the assemblage of several frames can serve as a single tray. Such an assemblage is especially useful when the articles to be placed in the tray are relatively tall and must be supported in the regions of their top and bottom areas.

Another advantage found of the present tray construction is the easy removal of the partition rods, should their removal be desired, and the insertion therein of a pallet or floor plate suitably provided with a multiplicity of holes or sockets to receive studs to act as spacers or retainers for objects placed upon the pallet.

It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a material handling tray. construction adapting the tray for use in a novel system of material handling.

Another object is to provide a novel frame with novelly retained removable partitions or dividing rods.

Another object is to provide a novel tray structure with a novel pallet and means for supporting the pallet in position therein.

Another object is to provide a master tray and a plurality of auxiliary or supplemental trays adapted for association or use in connection with the master tray.

Another object is to provide a novelly constructed pallet with a plurality of holes or sockets to selectively receive studs or the like to serve as spacers or supports for articles placed upon the pallet.

In the accompanying drawings there has been disclosed a structure designed to carry out the various objects of "ice the invention, but it is to be understood thatthe invention is not confined to the exact features shown as various changes may be made within the scope of the claims which follow.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a material handling tray embodying features of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the material handling tray shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view of the tray, taken substantially on line 33of Fig. 4.

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal vertical sectional view of the material handling tray illustrated in Fig. 1 and showing a plurality of auxiliary material handling trays stacked thereon.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view of a material handling tray embodying a modified arrangement of the partition rods, illustrated as 'thoughtaken along the line 55 'of the tray shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 6' is a longitudinal sectional view of a material handling tray embodying modified features of'construction.

Fig. 7 is a vertical sectionalview of a pallet or floor plate having material receivers removably mounted thereon.

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of a pallet embodying other features of the invention.

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary sectional view through the pallet illustrated in Fig. 8, showing the manner in which its legs are secured in place.

Referring now specifically to the disclosure in Figures 1 through 3, the emb'odimentof the material handling tray there illustrated comprises a frame structure having opposed parallelsides 11 and ends 12. The sides and ends'are fashioned from'wood stock and preferably have their corners abutted, as at 13, and firmly secured together by means of glue and/or any other conventional fastening devices. The frame is made more rigid by providing thereon, at each corner, a corner bracket 14. These brackets are arranged on the outside face of the frame and-preferably are secured' thereto by means of bolts 15. Each'of the brackets 14 is of such length that its upper extremity extends beyond the top edge of the frame, as shown, and said projectingportion is offset outwardly slightly, as at 16, for a purpose to be described presently.

The sides and ends of 'the'frame have their opposed faces provided with vertically disposed slots 17 and 18, respectively. The slots 17 in the sides are in transverse alignment, one with the'other, and the slots 18 in the ends are in longitudinal alignment, one with the other. It will be noted, that the'slots 17 and 18 terminate short of the bottom edges of the sides and ends and that the upper extremities of said slots open onto the top edges of said sides andends. A plurality of uniformly spaced apart transverse rods or dowels 19 are firmly secured at their ends in and extend between the sides 11, as shown, to constitute what might be termed an open bottom for the frame. These rods preferably are located one substantially midway between adjacent slot 17, but below the lower terminus thereof.

The frame described hereinabove is readily adapted to be divided into compartments of various sizes to accommodate miscellaneous articles. Accordingly, the means provided in the present instance for dividing the frame into compartments consists of a plurality of dowels or rods, each having a diameter corresponding substantially to, but slightly less than, the width of the slots 17 and 18. Two sets of dowels or rods are provided, one set having a length slightly greater than the distance between the inside faces of the sides, and the other set having a length slightly greater than the distance between the inside faces of the ends 12. It should be quite obvious that the shorter dowels, such as those indicated at 21, may be selectively positioned in any set or sets of opposed slots 17, and that the longer rods 22 may be selectively positioned in any set or sets of the opposed slots 18.

Although the rods may be placed in the frame in any combination and sequence, the Figure 5 sequence is perhaps the most advantageous. As .there shown, such 10ncompartment areas of a desired size. longitudinal rods 22 may, if desired, then be placed with- 3. gitudinal rods 22. as are to be positioned in the frame, are placed therein first, and a series of transversely extending rods 21 then are placed in position, so as to provide A second set of inthe frame, said rods being arranged in vertical alignment with the corresponding rodspreviously positioned therein. Similarly, additional transverse rods 21 may be arranged in opposed slots invertical alignment with the previously positioned transverse rods to thereby define,

in conjunction with the longitudinal rods 22, compartinents having considerable depth. Inasmuch as the diameter of the dowels or rods is slightly less than the width dimension of the slots17 and 18, said rods are free to rotate in their mounting, and also are free to settle towards the bottoms of the slots in such a manner as to test one upon the other at their places of intersection.

' After the required number of rods have been arranged in the frame in accordance with the compartment requirements, their displacement may be readily avoided by securing onto the topedges of the sides 11 strips 23 and 24. If desired, the strip 23 may be secured firmly to one of the sides 11, as by means of nails 25, prior to insertion of the rods. The other'strip 24 may be secured to its related side 11 by means of Wood screws 26. This affords means whereby the strip 24 may be'easily and quickly removed to facilitate rearrangement of the rods 19 and 22 to thereby adapt the material handling tray to accommodate articles of various sizes and shapes. This ready adaptability of the compartment arrangement within the tray enables the stocking of but a minimum number of frames and dowels or rods, which frames and rods can be easily and quickly assembled and disassembled to meet any change in the requirements of any particular industry. It might be noted that only one set of longitudinal dowels or rods 22 are illustrated in the Fig. 1 disclosure. This illustrated variation in the manner of arranging the rods within the frame, as compared with the Figure 5 disclosure, is exemplary of the wide latitude afiorded for compartment rearrangement by the instant construction, but is not to be construed as limiting the possibilities of rearrangement.

, The frame illustrated in Fig. 1, which has the fixed transverse rods 19 adjacent its bottom edge, may be termed a master frame because, as illustrated in Fig. 4, this frame may have associated with it one or more auxiliary frames, generally indicated at 27. Each of the auxiliary frames 27 is constructed substantially like the master frame and like numerals are used to identify corresponding parts, The onlymaterial difference is that the auxiliary frames are devoid of the transverse rods 19. The auxiliary frames 27 are readily maintained stacked upon one another and upon 'a master frame by reason of the projecting portions 16 of the .corner brackets 14.

'Such stacking as may be desired frequently becomes necessary owing to the size of the articles to be placed within the material handling tray.

As best illustrated in Fig. 4, the longitudinal and transverse rods 21 and 22, respectively, in each of the frames are arranged in vertical alignment to thereby define compartments of a depth corresponding to the overall depth of the stacked frames. Such an assemblage will accommodate relatively tall articles, which obviously cannot be ccommodated in a single frame of the kind illustrated in ig. 1.

The material handling tray of the present invention is primarily useful in the handling of highly polished machine parts such as, for example, various parts of aircraft engines, which parts would be rendered useless should they be marred even slightly, as by scratching. The free mounting of the various dowels or rods constitoting. the division walls between the compartments in which the parts are placed'permits said rods to rotate in their mounting in the event they are contacted during insertion or removal of such highly finished parts.

Although several arrangements of the rods 17 and 22' have been illustrated and described, it should be obvious that only one rod may be used. Such instance might 4 occur when the article placed in'the tray can be suspended from a rod.

The master tray may be fitted with handles 28, whereas no handles need .be provided on the auxiliary trays, althoughthis is, ofcourse,zoptional. l. a

In Fig. 6, the material handling tray there illustrated basic concept of the present invention.

consists of a frame constructed like the master frame illustrated in Fig. 1, and like numerals ldentify corresponding parts thereof. In the present instance, however, all of the removable transverse and longitudlnal dowels or rods 17 and 22 have been omitted and, in their stead, a floor plate or panel 29 is seated upon the fixed transverse rods 19. The door plate 29 may be fabricated from any suitable stifi material such as fibreboard, pressboard, plywood or the like, and its entire area is provided with spaced apertures 31, any one or more of which may receive the reduced mounting end of a post 32. In the present illustration, a plurality of posts 32 are shown mounted on the floor 29. Each of these posts is arranged to constitute a spacer or a support for one or more artlcles which may be placed upon the floor plate 29'. It should be apparent that the structure disclosed in Fig. 6 is primarily designed to adapt the tray structure to the handling of small parts or of parts of suchsize andshape as to be readily retained in place by engagement with or abutment against one or more posts 32; Some or all of the mounting ends of the posts may project beneath the bottom face of the floor plate and interference therewith, by the supporting members 19 or other surface upon which the floor plate may rest, is prevented by providing side rails 30 on the bottom face of the floor plate. desired, some partition rods 17 and 22 may be arranged in the frame over the floor plate 29 so as to define compartments having closed bottoms as distinguished from the support afforded by the presence of the stationary rods 19. I

Fig. 7 illustrates another modified form of construction, wherein the floor plate 29 illustrated in Fig. 6 is provided with a plurality of material receivers in the form of receptacles 33. The receptacles 33 may be fabricated from any' suitable material; however, it is preferred that they be made from plastic which is readily moldable and may include integral prongs 34 of a diameter to hereceived snugly within selected holes 31 in the floor plate. This mode of construction and assembly permits the arrangement of any reasonable number of material receivers 33 on the floor plate 29. Such an assembly is, of course, intended to be mounted within the master frame illustrated in Fig. 6. It might be observed that the floor plate 29 may be .equipped with a combination of material receivers 33 and posts 32 in such numbers as might be required for any particular use to which the material handling tray is to be put.

Figures 8 and 9 illustrate another embodiment of the The pallet 35 there illustrated, is of a size that is conventionalof a floor pallet of the character to be engaged by the fork of a lift truck. The pallet 35 includes a panel 36 apertured throughout its area preferably,'as indicated. The holes 37 are to receive posts 38 which may correspond to the posts 32, or may be otherwise constructed to meet various 7 specific requirements in use. The panel 36 is, of course, supported on legs 39 to, permit the-insertion and withdrawal therebeneath of the truck fork. In the present disclosure, the legs 39, best illustrated in Fig. 9, are fabricated from strap steel stock into substantially the lU-shape illustrated, and areapertured adjacent their ends to receive therethrough anchoring bolts 41. Reinforcement is provided at each legin the form of a strap 42 which underlies the anchored portions of the leg. It will be observed that the anchor bolts 41 have their heads embedded inholes 37; Thus, the entire surface of the pallet is made available to accommodate any required number of posts 38 or other retaining devices such as, for example, the material receivers 33 shown in Figure 7.

Although preferred forms of the invention have been disclosed in the accompanying drawings and described in the foregoing specification, it should be understood that the invention is capable of embodying other modifications in detail construction and that materials other than those selected as most suitable may be used Without de: parting from the spirit of 'the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

I claim: v a n 1 1. A tray structure of the character described comprising a frame, said frame having oppositely disposed sides and ends, a plurality of vertically'extending guides on opposed. faces of said sides and ends, said guides open ing onto-the 'topsurfaces of the sides and ends, one'or more rods extending longitudinally between and supported loosely in the guides in the frame ends, one or more rods extending transversely between and supported loosely in the guides in the frame sides, and fixedly mounted spaced rods extending between the side frames, one of said fixed rods being located below the plane of and in the space between adjacent transverse rods to constitute supporctls for articles placed between the rods supported in the gui es.

2. A material handling tray comprising a frame having opposite side and end Walls, said side and end walls having spaced vertical guides on their opposed faces closed on their lower ends and opening onto the top edges of their respective side and end walls, dividers for the frame, said dividers consisting of removable rods having their ends guided in opposed guides, some of said rods being disposed at right angles to others so as to interesct, and at least some of the rods being arranged in pairs with an intersecting rod holding them spaced apart vertically.

3. A material handling tray comprising a frame having opposite side and end walls, said side and end walls having vertical guides on their opposed faces, rods extending longitudinally and transversely of said frame having their ends engaged loosely in selected guides, said longitudinal and transverse rods contacting one another at points of intersection.

4. A material handling tray of the character described comprising, in combination, a frame, said frame having oppositely disposed sides and ends, a plurality of vertically extending slots on the opposed faces of said sides and ends, said slots opening onto the top edges of the sides and ends, a set of one or more rods extending longitudinally between and supported loosely in selected slots in the frame ends, a set of one or more rods extending transversely between and guided loosely in selected slots in the frame sides, said transverse rods resting on the longitudinal rods where they intersect, a second set of one or more rods extending longitudinally between and guided loosely in the selected slots in the frame sides and overlying the first named set of longitudinal rods, said last named set of longitudinal rods resting on the transverse rods where they intersect, and a second set of one or more loosely mounted transverse rods guided in the selected slots in the frame ends and resting on the second set of longitudinal rods where they intersect.

'5. A material handling tray comprising a series of superposed like frames each having oppositely disposed sides and ends, means to prevent relative displacement of the superposed frames, vertical slots on the inside faces of each side and end of each frame, said slots terminating short of the bottom edges of their respective sides and ends and opening onto the top edges thereof, a plurality of removable rods supported loosely in each frame, said rods having their ends guided in selected slots and some of the rods being disposed at right angles to other of said rods to define with the frame sides and ends a plurality of compartments each extending from the top to the bottom of the tray, and fixed means in the bottom frame to support articles placed in said compartments.

6. A material handling tray of the character described comprising, in combination, a frame, said frame having oppositely disposed sides and ends, a plurality of vertically extending slots on the opposed faces of said sides and ends, said slots opening onto the top edges of the sides and ends, a set of one or more rods extending longitudinally between and supported loosely in selected slots in the frame ends, a set of one or more rods extending transversely between and loosely guided in selected slots in the frame sides, said transverse rods resting on the longitudinal rods where they intersect, a second set of one or more rods extending longitudinally between and guided loosely in the selected slots in the frame sides and overlying the first named set of longitudinal rods, said last named set of longitudinal rods resting on the transverse rods where they intersect, a second set of one or more loosely mounted transverse rods guided in the selected slots in the frame ends and resting on the second set of longitudinal rods where they intersect, and means in the frame beneath the lowermost set of rods to support articles placed within the spaces defined by the intersecting rods.

7. -A material handling tray of the character described comprising, in combination, a frame, said frame having oppositely disposed sides and ends, a plurality of vertically extending slots on the opposed faces of said sides and ends, said slots opening onto the top edges of the sides and ends, a set of one or more rods extending longitudinally between and supported loosely in selected slots in the frame ends, a set of one or more rods extending transversely between and loosely guided in selected slots in the frame sides, said transverse rods resting on the longitudinal rods where they intersect, a second set of one or more rods extending longitudinally between and guided loosely in the selected slots in the frame sides and overlying the first named set of longitudinal rods, said last named set of longitudinal rods resting on the transverse rods where they intersect, a second set of one or more loosely mounted transverse rods guided in the selected slots in the frame ends and resting on the second set of longitudinal rods where they intersect, and means on the frame to prevent inadvertent displacement of all of said rods.

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